*In 101-level Buddhist studies, one steadily hears that the give a call "Hinayana" (Diminutive Means, in Chinese) is to be avoided as the give a call is slanderous or belittling to members of that set of traditions. Preference study, despite the fact that, reveals that the feature is better difficult than it basic appears. The apparition that the give a call "Theravada" (Way of the Elders) have to be hand-me-down in place of "Hinayana" may be everything of a industrious artifact: the tradition-strains to which the give a call "Theravada" refers are themselves part of the heavy set of traditions to which the give a call "Hinayana" refers. "Theravada" is in this manner not a orderly synonym for "Hinayana."It's true, of course, that Big/Little Means mudslinging is an needy part of Buddhist history. "Hinayana" has surely been hand-me-down by haunt Mahayana practitioners as a pejorative. Subdue, passable Hinayana practitioners enclose a reasonably have an effect self-understanding that it's not insincere warranted to march, accurately, that "Hinayana" is a pejorative. The Hinayana quintessence is that of the "arhat" (plainly, saint). The replace among the Big and Diminutive Vehicles coerce be whispered of as the replace among using one large dinghy or millions of little boats to difficult the water to the far waterside. In either skin, the dinghy(s) finally must be vulnerable. The bodhisattva is the boatman who must give out until somebody gets aboard further on he can depart his substantial ship. The arhat climbs here his little craft and starts rowing; others see him do so, and struggle here theirs.
Reference: magical-poetry.blogspot.com